NEIGHBOURHOOD CONCEPT

The Neighbourhood unit plan in in brief is the effort to create a residentialneighbourhood to meet the needs of family life in a unit related to thelarger whole but possessing a distinct entity characterised by six factors :

1. A child need not cross traffic streets on the way to school.2. A centrally located elementary school which will be within easy

walking distance, no more than one and a half mile from the farthestdwelling.

3. A housewife can walk to a shopping centre to obtain daily householdgifts.

4. Convenient transportation to and from the workplace.5. Scattered neighbourhood parks and playgrounds to comprise about

10% of the whole area.6. A residential environment with harmonious architecture, careful

planting, centrally located community buildings, and special internalstreet system with deflection of all through traffic preferably onthoroughfares which bound and clearly set off neighbourhood.

What is Neighbourhood Unit Plan?

• The neighbourhood concept is arguably one of the major planninglandmarks that shaped the urban form of the twentieth century city inmany countries.

• Coincidently, both the neighbourhood idea of Clarence Stein andHenry Wright, exemplified in their plan for Radburn, and theNeighbourhood Unit idea of Clarence Perry were published in 1929.

• The urban design principles of Stein and Wright included the idea of asuperblock of residential units grouped around a central green, theseparation of vehicles and pedestrians, and a road hierarchy with cul-de-sac for local access roads. A cluster of superblocks was to form aself-contained neighbourhood. A group of neighbourhoods wouldthen comprise the city.

• For Perry the physical arrangement of the elementary school, smallparks and playgrounds, and local shops was the basis of hisneighbourhood idea. Each neighbourhood was to be a unit of the city.

The Original

Neighbourhood concepts

The design of the Radburn neighbourhood model was in essence a hierarchical one comprising four levels –

• Enclave• Block• Superblock • Neighbourhood.

RADBURN MODELby Clarence Stein and Henry Wright

ENCLAVE

• The fundamental component was an enclave of twenty or so houses.

• These houses were arrayed in a U-formation about a short vehicular street called a lane,really a cul de-sac court with access to individual garages.

• While the back of each house faced this court the front of the house had a garden.

Cul-De-Sac meaning Dead End

BLOCK

• Three or more of these enclaves were lined together to form a block.Enclaves within the block were separated from one another by apedestrian pathway that ran between the front gardens of all thehouses.

• The blocks, usually four in number, were arranged around the sides of acentral parkway in such a manner so as to enclose the open green space

SUPERBLOCK

• The clustered 5 blocks together with the central parkway comprised what Steinand Wright termed a superblock.

Neighbourhood

• Four to six superblocks commonly formed a neighbourhood thatwas bounded by major roads or natural features.

• At one end of the parkway there could be a small school withcommunity rooms. Roads in the neighbourhood were to behierarchical - major through traffic roads to border eachneighbourhood, distributor roads to surround each superblock,and culs-de-sac to provide access to individual property lots.

• Stein emphasized that the prime goal was to design a town forthe automobile age. In fact the title on the drawing of the townplan was A town for the motor age (Stein, 1928).

OVERLAPPING NEIGHBOURHOODS

• Although Stein and Wright considered neighbourhoods as each being relatively self-contained they arranged them in an overlapping manner to support joint use of facilities such as hospitals, high schools, and theatres.

• They visualized the neighbourhood as forming the building block of the city whereas previously the lot and the city were the basis for town design.

Conclusion

• To their minds there should be a three level hierarchy consisting of neighbourhood, town, and region.

• They believed, that future urban development should be based on the regional city, a constellation of smaller-sized towns tied together by a parkway or open highway.

NEIGHBOURHOOD UNIT OF CLARENCE PERRY

• Chicago-trained sociologist Clarence Arthur Perry (1872–1944) becameone of the principal theorists of and advocates for the traditionalneighbourhood as a basis for the planning of new towns and urbanareas and for the redevelopment of blighted slums.

• His advocacy of the “neighbourhood unit” as a principle element ofplanning was based not only on his academic interests, but also on hisdirect experience as sociologist-in-residence for the Russell SageFoundation’s model garden suburb of Forest Hill Gardens in New York,designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, and Grosvenor Atterbury .

• Perry identified six neighbourhood unit design principles.

• First, the unit was to be ideally a shape in which all sides werefairly equidistant from the centre, and its size was to be fixed.

• Secondly, a central neighbourhood or community centre was tocontain various institutional sites, including a school, groupedround a central green space.

• Thirdly, local shops or shops and apartments were to be locatedat the outer corners of the neighbourhood.

• Fourthly, scattered small parks and open spaces, located in eachquadrant of the neighbourhood, were to form 10 per cent of thetotal area.

• Fifthly, arterial streets were to bound each side of theneighbourhood while ,

• sixthly, the layout of the internal street was to be a combinationof curvilinear and diagonal roads to discourage through traffic.Vehicular and pedestrian traffic was to be segregated.

• Perry’s concept of the neighbourhood was as a relatively self-contained building block of the city, hence the addition of theword unit to his concept.

• He identified four urban locations where the idea could beapplied new sites in the suburbs, vacant sites in the central area,predominantly apartment districts, and central areas that hadsuffered deterioration and required rebuilding .

• He later recognized that land assemblage in the existing built-upareas of cities to create neighbourhoods was impractical andsuggested a modified process of eminent domain (governmentright to take private land for public benefit with justcompensation through the process of condemnation) be appliedin the assemblage of neighbourhood unit sites.

Comparison of design principles• Stein and Wright, along with Perry, agreed that the neighbourhood was to

have a limited or fixed size determined by the population needed to support an elementary school.

• Other similarities between their two models were defining the neighbourhood by 6 means of boundaries, the inclusion of a significant amount of open space, a neighbourhood centre that would include the school, and a road system that was safe for pedestrians and did not allow through traffic.

• A critical distinction between the Radburn model of Stein and Wright and Perry’s idea was the kind of neighbourhood boundary each envisaged. Although Perry as well as Stein and Wright used arterial streets to form the neighbourhood boundary, Stein and Wright preferred the use of natural forms where possible.

• Another difference between the two models was the maximumwalking distances each proposed - 0.8 km in the Radburnneighbourhood and 0.4 km in the Neighbourhood Unit model.

• Further distinctions were the superblock with its central green, theseparation of streets and pedestrian paths, and the road hierarchy ofthe Radburn model.

• Another difference was that Perry envisaged the neighbourhood as aseparate urbanUnit. When a number of units were amalgamated theywould form the city. Stein and Wright, on the other hand, conceivedthe Radburn neighbourhoods as overlapping one another andgrouped into districts to support large-scale facilities.

Neighborhood-unit principles

• Size. A residential unit development should provide housingfor that population for which one elementary school isordinarily required, its actual area depending uponpopulation density.

• Boundaries. The unit should be bounded on all sides byarterial streets, sufficiently wide to facilitate its bypassing byall through traffic.

• Open spaces. A system of small parks and recreationsspaces should be provided, planned to meet the needs ofthe particular neighbourhood.

• Institution sites. Sites for the school and other institutionshaving service spheres coinciding with the limits of the unitshould be suitably grouped about a central point, orcommon area.

Internal street system. The unit should be provided with aspecial street system, each highway being proportioned to itsprobable traffic load, and the street net as a whole beingdesigned to facilitate circulation within the unit and todiscourage its use by through traffic. To offer a clear picture ofeach of these principles, the figures illustrate plans anddiagrams in which the principles have been applied.

Local shops. One or more shopping districts, adequate for thepopulation to be served, should be laid out in thecircumference of the unit, preferably at traffic junctions andadjacent to similar districts of adjoining neighbourhoods.

LOW-COST SUBURBAN DEVELOPMENT

Character of district. The plan shown in previous slide is based upon an actual tractof land in the outskirts of the Borough of Queens.

Population and housing. The lot subdivision provides 822 Single family houses, 236double houses, 36 row houses and 147 apartment suites, accommodations for atotal of 1,241 families. At the rate of 4.93 persons per family, this would mean apopulation of 6,125 and a school enrollment of 1,021 pupils. For the whole tractthe average density would be 7.75 families per gross acre.

• Open spaces. The parks, playgrounds, small greens and circles in thetract total 17 acres, or 10.6 percent of the total area.

• Community center. The pivotal feature of the layout is the common,with the group of buildings that face upon it. These consist of theschoolhouse and two lateral structures facing a small central plaza. Oneof these buildings might be devoted to a public library and the other toany suitable neighbourhood purpose. Sites are provided for twochurches, one adjoining the school playground and the other at aprominent street intersection.

• Shopping district. Small shopping districts are located at each of thefour corners of the development. The streets furnishing access to thestores are widened to provide for parking, and at the two moreimportant points there are small market squares, which affordadditional parking space and more opportunity for unloading space inthe rear of the stores. The total area devoted to business blocks andmarket plazas amounts to 7.7 acres.

• Street system. In carrying out the unit principle, the boundary streetshave been made sufficiently wide to serve as main traffic arteries. Oneof the bounding streets is 160 feet wide, and the other three havewidths of 120 feet. Each of these arterial highways is provided with acentral roadway for through traffic and two service roadways for localtraffic separated by planting strips.

NEIGHBORHOODUNIT FOR AN INDUSTRIALSECTOR

Plan on the right is a sketch of the kind of layout, which might be devised for a district in the vicinity of factories and railways.

Functional dispositions. The above features dictated the employment of atree-like design for the street system. Its trunk rests upon the elevatedstation, passes through the main business district, and terminates at thecommunity center.

Housing density. is intended to suggest mainly an arrangement of thevarious elements of a neighbourhood and is not offered as a finished plan.The street layout is based upon a housing scheme providing for 2,000families, of which 68 percent are allotted to houses, some semi-detachedand some in rows; and 32 percent to apartments averaging 800 squarefeet of ground area per suite. On the basis of 4.5 persons in houses and4.2 in suites, the total population would be around 8,800 people.

Recreation spaces. These consist of a large schoolyard and twoplaygrounds suitable for the younger children, grounds accommodatingnine tennis courts, and a playfield adapted either for baseball or soccerfootball.

Community center. The educational, religious and civic life of thecommunity is provided for by a group of structures, centrally located anddisposed so as to furnish an attractive vista for the trunk street and apivotal point for the whole layout.

Shopping districts. The most important business area is, of course,aroundthe main portal and along the southern arterial highway. For greaterconvenience and increased exposures a small market square has beenintroduced.

APARTMENT-HOUSE UNITS

Population. On the basis of five-story and basement buildings andallowing 1,320 square feet per suite, this plan would accommodate 2,381families. Counting 4.2 persons per family, the total population wouldnumber 10,000 individuals.

Environment. The general locality is that section where downtownbusiness establishments and residences begin to merge. One side of theunit faces on the principal street of the city and this would be devoted togeneral business concerns. A theater and a business block,penetrated byan arcade, would serve both the residents of the unit and the generalpublic.

Street system. Wide streets bound the unit, while its interior systemisbroken up into shorter highways that give easy circulation within the unitbut do not run uninterruptedly through it.

Open spaces. The land devoted to parks and playgrounds averages overone acre per 1,000 persons. If the space in apartment yards is alsocounted, this average amounts to 3.17 acres per 1,000 persons.

Community center. Around a small common are grouped a school,twochurches, and a public building. The last might be a branch public library, a museum, a “little theater,” or a fraternal building. In any case it should be devoted to a local community use.

FIVE-BLOCK APARTMENT-HOUSE UNIT

Locality. The plan shown in previous slide is put forward as a suggestion ofthe type of treatment which might be given to central residential areas ofhigh land values destined for rebuilding because of deterioration or thesweep of a real estate movement. The blocks chosen for the ground site are200 feet wide and 670 feet long, a length that is found in several sections inManhattan.

Ground Plan. The dimensions of the plot between the boundary streets are650 feet by 1,200 feet, and the total area is approximately 16acres.

Accommodations. The capacity of the buildings is about 1,000 families,with suites ranging from three to fourteen rooms in size, the majority ofthen suitable for family occupancy. In addition there would be room for ahotel for transients, an elementary school, an auditorium, a gymnasium, aswimming pool, handball courts, locker rooms and other athletic facilities.The first floors of certain buildings on one or more sides of the unit couldbe devoted to shops.

Height. The buildings range in height from two and three stories on theboundary streets to ten stories in the abutting ribs, fifteen stories in themain central ribs, and thirty-three stories in the two towers.

SOURCES

• URBAN PLANNING THEORY AND PRACTICE,M PRATAP RAO, Page no. 114-116.

• TIME SAVERS STANDARDS URBAN DESIGN, CLARENCE ARTHUR PERRY,PAGE NO. 2.4.1-2.4.7

• PLANNING AND URBAN DESIGN STANDARDS• URBAN DESIGN PRINCIPLES OF THE ORIGINAL NEIGHBORHOOD

PRINCIPLES, PAPER BY NICOLAS PATRICIOS,UNIVERSTIY OF MIAMI• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighbourhood_unit

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